By Vivienne Russell | 6 June 2014

The Federated States of Micronesia has agreed its first country partnership strategy with the World Bank in a bid to boost incomes and improve access to services.

Among the areas the strategy will focus on are improvements to infrastructure, including the electricity supply and telecommunications, increasing revenue from fishing and strengthening the investment climate.

Franz Drees-Gross, World Bank country director for the Pacific Islands, said: ‘We are excited to be strengthening our engagement in Micronesia and are committed to supporting the government’s strategy for sustained growth, which is closely aligned with the World Bank Group’s twin goals of ending extreme poverty and building shared prosperity.’

The first programme to go ahead under the strategy, which will run to 2017, is a $14m energy sector development project, financed by a grant from the International Development Association. This will increase the available power generation capacity and efficiency of the four state power utilities to make the electricity supply more sustainable and affordable.

The Federated States of Micronesia is a federation of four semi-autonomous states: Chuuk, Kosrae, Pohnpei and Yap. The islands span 1.6 million square kilometres of ocean north of the equator and are home to almost 103,000 people.